Which didn’t help.
Then it was Rory’s turn, and he just had time to flash her a smile before his instructor scooted him forward and tipped him out of the plane.
‘OK?’ Graham rested a hand on Tasha’s shoulder.
‘I’m good.’ Her teeth were chatting uncontrollably. Right now, Rory was tumbling through the air. What if the parachute got tangled and didn’t open?
What if mine doesn’t?
They’d reached the hatch. Behind her, Tasha could hear the hyperventilating woman sobbing and saying, ‘I can’t do it, please don’t make me do it.’ Nudging her forward inch by inch, Graham shouted above the noise of the wind, ‘Just relax and cross your arms over your chest.’
Her feet were now dangling down through the hatch, being buffeted sideways by the wind. She felt Graham ease forward, moving her with him. He rocked back, then forward again . . . and then there was no more plane floor to be sitting on. They were tumbling over and over through the air, free-falling. At that point, Tasha knew for sure that her life was over. She was oh so definitely going to die.
Then Graham tapped her smartly on both shoulders, his signal for her to get into the free-fall position. Tasha stretched her body flat and held her arms out wide, arching her back, keeping her head raised and curling her legs up behind her.
Her face was battered by the wind, her hair was tied back but the ends still slapped her cheeks. They were falling, she knew, at 120mph. This was going to carry on for at least the next forty seconds. Since she wasn’t going to die for another few minutes, she looked down and saw green grass, hayfields, trees and buildings below. And above and all around her, mesmerising in its vastness, there was clear blue sky.
She didn’t even realise it had happened. One minute the anxiety and terror had been all-encompassing; the next minute it had evaporated. They were hurtling through the air together and it felt like the most magical and amazing thing in the world. She was flying. Well, not quite. But the fear was gone.
Then at five thousand feet Graham pulled the ripcord and deployed the parachute. There was a tugging sensation on the harness gripping Tasha’s body, and plummeting gave way to gently floating down to earth.
Oh wow, this was incredible. Gazing around, she took in the cars bouncing sunlight off their windscreens, the teeny-tiny people below, the birds flying through the space between up here and down there. And that was the field they’d be landing in; she could see the big white cross laid out on the ground to guide them towards it.
There seemed to be something written on the cross, Tasha saw as she swayed and floated through the warm air. Graham’s arm came into view and he pointed over her shoulder.
‘Can you make out what it says?’
She shook her head; presumably it would be something along the lines of: ‘Please land here, and if you can manage not to break your legs we’d be grateful.’
Thirty seconds later, when they were that much closer, the blurry black letters became recognisable words, and she saw that they said:
Chapter 40
Behind the plastic goggles, Tasha’s eyes filled with tears.
Oh wow. Just . . . wow.
Ninety seconds later, the ground came up to meet them and it was time to land. Pulling up her legs and scooting along practically in Graham’s lap, Tasha made it without so much as a bump. They’d managed a textbook landing, the white parachute billowing behind them.
‘Well?’ said Graham, unclipping her and helping her out of the harness.
‘It was amazing. Thank you so much. I loved it.’
‘Good.’ He beamed at her, his jolly farmer’s cheeks glowing. ‘Although I was actually wondering how you felt about the message on the landing cross.’
He’d known about it all along, had been in on the surprise. Tasha removed her plastic goggles and said, ‘Exciting, isn’t it? Someone wants to marry me!’ Her eyes danced. ‘Now we just have to find out who it is.’
Then she turned, because there was Rory waiting at the perimeter of the landing area with Joe and Carmel. And her heart gave a squeeze of love, because he truly made her life complete.
As she reached them, Joe indicated his raised phone. ‘I’m videoing this, by the way, for posterity. So keep it clean if you can.’
Tasha shivered as Rory reached out and took hold of her left hand. His gaze unwavering, he said, ‘I’m going to do this properly,’ and dropped to one knee.
‘Oh my God,’ Carmel exclaimed, ‘this is SO romantic.’
‘Don’t interrupt.’ Joe gave her a nudge.
‘I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anyone,’ said Rory.
‘Thanks,’ said Joe. ‘It’s because I’m such a great guy.’